A World to Explore

Dublin, Ireland – The technical program of VMSG 2016 concluded today and I am saturated with new ideas about igneous systems. Abstracts for all of the talks and posters can be found on the VMSG 2016 website. There were so many excellent presentations, but I thought I’d mention just a few of the highlights.

When Ben Hayes discussed his idea for the formation of plagioclase-pyroxene layering in the Bushveld Complex by downward percolation of a dense melt through a crystal mush, Mary Reinthal (’16) said she felt like she was reliving Petrology class. I guess that layered mafic intrusions lab had an impact!

John Maclennan gave a talk about the uncertainties (and deadly implications) of interpreting pressures from CO2 compositions of melt inclusions.

Chris Bean explained that, by recording long period (Lp) seismic events close to the source, we can see that they are better explained by brittle failure events in shallow edifice rocks rather than magma movement. (Link to his 2014 Nature paper)